Issue 1: Do Ohioans want or need a constitutional convention

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - State Issue 1: Question presented pursuant to Article XVI, Section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Ohio. A majority yes vote is necessary for passage. Shall there be a convention to revise, alter, or amend the Ohio Constitution? Yes or No

Does the Ohio constitution need amended? That is the question Ohio voters are being asked to decide when they go to the polls Nov. 6 and cast their ballot for, or against Issue 1 .

Ohio is a state that adheres to an ‘automatic ballot referral’.  An automatic ballot referral is a ballot measure that is set up by a state's constitution to automatically appear as a statewide ballot proposition under certain circumstances. In Ohio, those ‘certain circumstances’ are the provision that mandates by law, that voters are asked every 20 years whether a new constitutional convention should be called.  2012 is that year.

If the voters decide to hold the convention, delegates are appointed who will draft the new constitution or amendments. Then, the voters must approve the new constitution or amendments.

Who wants a constitutional convention? By all indications, no one is actively campaigning for changes to the constitution, nor endorsing the passage of Issue 1.

There are opponents, however.  The editorial boards of the Akron Beacon Journal , the Cleveland Plain Dealer , and The Columbus Dispatch are among the voices urging a ‘no’ vote.

In an Oct. 9, 2012 editorial, The Columbus Dispatch wrote, “It’s not that the state constitution couldn’t use an update; it could, and The Dispatch accordingly supported the legislature’s creation last year of a Constitutional Modernization Commission , which will have the power to propose changes to the constitution without the chaos that a constitutional convention could bring.”

The last time a constitutional convention question was on the ballot in the state was in 1992.

The last time a constitutional convention was called was in 1910 when citizens and politicians felt a need to modernize a constitution that was first written in 1802.

Web links:

• The Ohio Secretary of State
• The Ohio Legislature

Full text of the ballot language:

State Issue 1

Question presented pursuant to Article XVI, Section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Ohio.

A majority yes vote is necessary for passage. Shall there be a convention to revise, alter, or amend the Ohio Constitution? Yes or No.

Article XVI, Section 3 of the Constitution of the State of Ohio reads as follows:
“At the general election to be held in the year one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two, and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question: ‘Shall there be a convention to revise, alter, or amend the constitution[,]’ shall be submitted to the electors of the state; and in case a majority of the electors, voting for and against the calling of a convention, shall decide in favor of a convention, the general assembly, at its next session, shall provide, by law, for the election of delegates, and the assembling of such convention, as is provided in the preceding section; but no amendment of this constitution, agreed upon by any convention assembled in pursuance of this article, shall take effect, until the same shall have been submitted to the electors of the state, and adopted by a majority of those voting thereon.”